It didn’t take long for a “spy photo” of the 2012 Ducati Streetfighter 848 to emerge from Bologna, and it looks like Ducati wants to tease out the yellow paint job it plans to bring to the smaller displacement Streetfighter. The five-bolt arrangement on the rear-wheel hub is a give away to the fact that an 848 motor lurks in the Streetfighter shown, as the current Streetfighter 1098 uses a six-bolt pattern because of the more powerful 155hp motor. With the Ducati Superbike 848 EVO motor making 140hp (and also sporting a five-bolt rear hub pattern), we can expect that the Ducati Streetfighter 848 to lose 10-15 ponies from its superbike compatriot.

The Streetfighter 848‘s components appear to be the cheaper Brembo radially-mounted calipers and the Marzoochi USD forks, both seemingly coming out of the Monster 1100 EVO common parts bin. As we predicted, Ducati is keeping the styling of its Streetfighter update the same, and is merely bringing the new motor options into the fold. We haven’t seen photos yet of the Ducati Streetfighter 1198, though it will look virtually the same, sans the fact it will need a valve adjustment only half as often as the current Streetfighter, thanks to its Testastretta 11° v-twin motor.

Of course there has to be a purpose for a spy photo, and in this case it would seem to be Ducati testing the waters with its Racing Yellow color scheme. Certainly a departure from the red, white, and black colors we’ve seen Ducati release in the past, we imagine the Bologna brigade wants to test the interwebs for some feedback on the new color option, so it doesn’t have to kill off a color choice after its been released to the public (like the company did with the white Diavel option, replacing it with the Ducati Diavel Diamond Black after pitchforks came out from Ducatisti).

Ducati could be testing reception to the yellow, but it’s not like plenty of other Ducatis haven’t come in yellow.

irksome

The bike isn’t the news here, it’s the fact that someone in the world still wears a forward-mounted fanny pack.

Daniel Croft

Can anyone see if it has ABS?

Greg

Fanny packs are still all the rage in Europe….

Balzaak

@irksome forward pack would be a fanny pack in the UK, that’s why it’s such a dirty word there but good call! I also question the mans cargo pants and wonder if he’s just not a tourist who didn’t have a clue what he was walking by

@ Daniel Croft: the Monster 1100 Evo, which is a bit more docile and is oriented towards the same type of use as this, does come with ABS, so there’s every reason to believe that this will have ABS as well. And I’m sure that the upcoming 1198 Streetfighter will also have ABS. And the Superquadrata will have it too, yes.

Speaking of the 1100 Evo – won’t the SF 848 simply eat it’s market share? Because I can clearly see someone who wants a streetbike with a bit more grunt – without looking for the present Streetfighter’s overkill (and that would have been, up to this point, tempted by the 1100 Evo) going straight to this SF 848… Ok, it’ll probably cost a bit more than the big Monster, but I don’t see this difference being more than 1000-1500 €, otherwise it’ll simply be too expensive.

I can only see the 1100 Evo appeal to the most faithful, though I don’t think there are enough of them for Ducati to make a profit out of that model.

What do you guys think?

Daniel Croft

@loki – I own an M1100 EVO and want a bike with ABS so the base streetfighter wasn’t an option for me. If the SF848 had been available when I bought my bike, I’d have seriously considered it but I’m not sure they’re exactly matching in terms of sales but there’s obviously a fairly substantial overlap. I’m not sure how Ducati plans on managing that. I’ve also owned an S4RS and know from experience the different characteristics of the liquid cooled as opposed to air cooled motors. Also, the ergonomics of the bike are quite different. I’ve wanted a mid sized liquid cooled monster for a long time, if there’d been an SF848 w/ ABS (don’t care about DTC too much) I’d probably have got that but I don’t think everyone has that mindset. I think the engine numbers will be the inverse: lower torque/higher HP.

BikePilot

I think there’s room for the 1100 and 848 – maybe sorta similar overall performance, but a very different approach. I think most folks will want one or the other without too much cross-cannibalization. I could even imagine having both:) the 848 fits nicely as a superbike derived, modern-styled naked 4-valve, liquid cooled, relatively high-revving performance machine. The M1100 is a classically styled (somewhat), low-revving, high-torque air cooled 2-valve machine that’s quick, but less about performance than an overall aesthetic and visceral connection.

I think ducati should be careful to retain the classic, gorgeous styling of the monster and not let the monster trend too much toward the droopy, angular “modern” street fighter look else they will become less differentiated (imo the current monster deviates from the classic too far, but not irreparably so – a better headlight would work wonders).

kevin

@BikePilot

I agree. Though there may be some performance overlap these two bikes go about their business in very different ways. The SF, like its bigger brother, will be a high revving screamer while the Monster is more torquey.

Also the riding position of the Monster is more relaxed when compared to the more aggressive seating position of the SF.

I could also imagine having both (or maybe replace the SF848 with a BMW S 1000 RR).

Ducati has a complete stable of excellent choices, what they really need to work on is maintenance costs, it seems like racketeering when it costs more to do the standard maintenance on a Ducati than it does a Mercedes or BMW… I’m mostly talking about bikes with 848cc’s or less, though I suspect those with higher displacements feel the same too…